1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a femoral slideway, and more specifically to a femoral slideway/femur-size template arrangement and a knee endoprosthesis system with such a femoral slideway.
2. Description of the Related Art
A femoral slideway of this kind is disclosed, for example, in the German patent DE 40 41 002 C2. In the surgical technique customarily used for knee-joint replacement by means of such a femoral slideway, an equal amount of bone is removed from the two condyles of the femur, so that the anterior or ventral cut is parallel to the posterior or dorsal cut. When the implant is in the position thus defined, the axis of rotation of the implant no longer coincides with the axis specified by the arrangement of the collateral ligaments, and this position is not anatomical inasmuch as when flexed, the implant is seated either too tightly on the medial side or too loosely on the lateral side.
The remedy that was recommended some time ago, namely an outward rotation of the cutting guide such that in the posterior region less bone is removed laterally than medially, whereas anterior-laterally more bone is removed than on the anterior-medial side, also presents disadvantages, which the construction of the femoral slideway proposed in DE 197 16 879 A1 of the applicant is designed to eliminate. The crux of this solution is to rotate the anterior or ventral cut in the transverse plane.
However, this more recent solution also requires improvement with respect to optimizing the joint function in cooperation with the collateral ligaments in particular, especially in order to reduce the load imposed thereon.